Education Department empowered to regulate use of 'museum' name

The state will get the power to more strictly regulate corporations' use of the name "museum" or "arboretum" starting with the new year.

A new law going into effect on Sunday, Jan. 1, will require that the state Education Department and the state Board of Regents approve the use of such descriptions in corporate names before the entities can be incorporated by the Secretary of State's office.

That will mean that the Education Department will have to verify that the corporations have a bonafide educational purpose and mission, according to legislative sponsors of the new law.

The sponsors said there have been several instances in the past three or four years where commercial enterprises have sought to incorporate under a name -- such as a "children's museum" -- that implies they are educational institutions.

In one case, sponsors said a foreign company that operated a carnival incorporated itself as a children's museum.

State law already limits the use of the terms "college" or "university" to bonafide institutions of higher education.